Congress rejects challenges, affirms Biden as president
Congress formally certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory early Thursday morning after rejecting challenges involving Arizona and Pennsylvania on a day marked by violence at the Capitol.
The procedural move was a formality but dragged on for more than 14 hours, partly because of challenges from some Republicans claiming election fraud using arguments that had fallen flat in courts across the country since November.
Congress completed the electoralvote count at 1:39 a.m. Arizona time. Biden had 306 electoral votes to President Donald Trump’s 232 electoral votes.
The process was dramatically halted for about six hours after a mob supportive of Trump stormed the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to flee for safety and leading to the fatal shooting of a San Diego woman by police.
After two hours of debate in the House of Representatives and Senate, both chambers nixed challenges to Arizona’s electors. The Senate dispensed with debate over Pennsylvania and dismissed that challenge as well. The House, however, went through another protracted debate before voting down the challenge there.
By a 93-6 vote, a solemn Senate rejected the objection to certifying Arizona’s electoral vote for Biden, mounted by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and others after two hours of debate that stretched into the night. A little later, the House of Representatives did the same on a 303-121 vote.
Hours later, the Senate rejected the Pennsylvania challenge by a 92-7 vote. The House defeated it, 282-138.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris carried Arizona by 10,457 votes, the narrowest margin in the country.
Both of Arizona’s Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, voted against both objections.
In the House, Republican Reps. Gosar, Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko voted to support the challenges to the electors in both states. Rep. David Schweikert, RAriz., joined with Democrats to defeat the Arizona effort and voted with Republicans to challenge the Pennsylvania electors.
Cruz, who called on Congress to appoint an electoral commission to look into claims of electoral fraud, was joined by GOP senators to undo Arizona’s election results: Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.
The Senate vote came as the House was still debating, and after a parade of senators spoke against the objections to certifying Arizona’s 11 electoral votes.
They quoted Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who has voiced his trust in the state’s election process. They cited the dozens of legal challenges that found no merit to the assertions that the election was stolen from Trump. They said it was their duty to speak truth to Trump’s supporters, no matter how hard it was for them to accept.
Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and others initially supported the effort. But after the riot in the Capitol, which left parts of
the complex in tatters, and one person dead from a gunshot, they changed their minds.
As the debate barreled to an end, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, drew long applause when he implored his colleagues to stand for the truth.
“The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth,” he said, prompting clapping. “That’s the burden. That’s the duty of leadership. The truth is that President-elect Biden won the election. President Trump lost. I’ve had that experience myself. It’s no fun.”
Romney was the GOP presidential nominee in 2012 and lost that election to President Barack Obama.
Romney said those who pressed the “dangerous gambit” of objecting to the results of the election “will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy. Fairly or not, they’ll be remembered for their role in this shameful episode.”
Lankford, who had been speaking mid-sentence voicing his objection earlier in the day when lawmakers were told to shelter in place, said he would not move forward with his objection. Lankford acknowledged objectors’ calls for an election commission and emergency audit would not happen.
“I understand that and we’re headed towards the certification of Joe Biden to be the president of the United States,” he said.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., blasted objectors’ efforts, saying his colleagues had a “clear choice of whether we are going to feed the beast of ignorance or whether we are going to tell the truth to the American people.
“We saw that beast today roaming the halls. Let’s not invite it back.”
Durbin said the mob was inspired and incited by a president who refuses to accept loss.
“This sacred place was desecrated by a mob today — on our watch,” he said. “This temple to democracy was defiled by thugs who roamed the halls and sat in that chair, Mr. Vice President … What brought this on? Did this mob spring spontaneous from America? No. This mob was invited to come to Washington on this day by this president for one reason: because he knew the Electoral College vote was going to be counted this day.”
Shortly before the debate abruptly stopped because of the mob of rioters, Sinema defended Arizona’s electoral process and said the challenge “fails any factual analysis.” She said it sought to rob voters of their constitutional right to elect their leaders.
“Our system allows for a continuous contest of ideas — and those voters who support the losing side of a free, fair election have not been disenfranchised,” she said “Rather, they maintain just as important a voice in America’s future — and leaders have a duty to serve all of our constituents, including those who voted for other candidates.”
Kelly did not speak on the floor. On Twitter, he called the maneuver an “unpatriotic attempt to overturn our election — and silence the voices of Arizonans.”
In a lengthier statement issued late Wednesday, Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy combat pilot, said the U.S. holds fair elections with peaceful transitions of power. Those who took part in violent acts against the country should be held to account, he said.
“Our democracy was tested today,” first by the objections to the state’s electoral votes, “and then again by individuals, spurred on by the president, storming the Capitol in an unpatriotic attempt to overturn our election. They will fail. Tonight we will count Arizona’s electoral votes and those of every other state.”
The effort’s fate in the Democraticcontrolled House seemed predestined to fail.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., urged his House colleagues to reject the arguments about Arizona’s elections, saying it was part of “fringe conspiracy theories.”
He said Republican and Democratic officials said the state’s elections were properly administered, and noted that those challenging the presidential results don’t question their own victories in the same election.
“Our colleagues may say they are only asking questions and seeking to reassure voters. But let us be clear, these questions have been answered by the voters and by the courts,” Grijalva said. “Rather than accepting the answers and the results of the election, they are fanning the flames of unfounded suspicions.”
Biggs argued that the Legislature’s constitutional control of choosing electors was undermined in part by courtordered rulings to extend the state’s voter-registration deadlines before the presidential election.
“The Arizona Legislature was no longer in control of determining the manner of appointing presidential electors,” he said.
Gosar argued that the state had too many irregularities to certify the results without first conducting a forensic audit of the election. He again cited concerns over voting machines used in Maricopa County that have been previously dismissed.
Lesko, who said she was undecided on the matter earlier in the day, agreed there were significant election problems in her state.
“After much deliberation and consultation with constitutional attorneys, I decided to agree with the objection to Arizona’s electors,” she said in a written statement after her vote. “Arizona violated state law, and thus the United States Constitution ... In line with upholding my oath to follow the U.S. Constitution, I voted to agree with the objection to Arizona’s electors.”
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., exhorted Republicans to abandon their loyalty to Trump after the unprecedented assault on the Capitol.
“Today, there was treason in this house. Today, there was traitors in this house,” he said. “I’m not asking my Republican colleagues to help me and stop this objection to Arizona. I’m asking you to get off all these objections.
“It is time for you to save your soul. It is time for you to save your country. That man at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will forget you. He will use you and he will dump you to the side. But what will be left will be the stain, the stain on democracy that you are engaging in right now.”